June 2002
Greetings from Guatemala,

We have only six months to complete our mission here. .. "so much to do. so little time".

We recently spent three days with our group of missioners from Central America. There are about a dozen of us in total. The news about Guatemala is not good. Apparently over the last year there have been steadily increasing human rights violations in this country. The same patterns seem to be repeating themselves that preceeded the previous violence. Our missioners in the human rights office are aware of a number of recent events that are great cause for concern, and for the first time in their two-year mission, they are beginning to become very concerned about their personal safety. When I questioned another one of our group who has been down here through the violence of the 80's why he was not concerned about his safety, he said he was, but he has returned here under a different name. The commitment of these men and women is inspirational. They are committed to bringing justice to Guatemala. They are risking their lives to do so. It is such a privilege to work with them.

We are continuing to do what we can to help out down here, though there is no doubt the problems are endless and overwhelming. The number of street people and homeless is continually on the rise. On several occasions lately we have run out of food. It is really hard to see their faces when they realize they are not going to eat that night. Recently the city has not been able to fund their feeding program, so there have been many nights I have not gone to the dump. I am very discouraged about this, because the idea was to build a bond of trust with these people, so when the homeless shelter is built they will come and use it. Instead, they are going to feel that they cannot count on us to do what we say we are going to do. Personally I am making 7 times the amount of lunches I was making a year ago. There are now about 40 homeless living around Central Park. I am trying to feed them twice a week. Richard comes with me now, because the bags are too heavy to carry. I hope the city resumes the program at the dump soon. I don't want to loose the personal contact we have established. I really like many of these poor people. I am slowly learning their names, and I really miss some of them when they are not there.

Sometimes it is very frustrating trying to get help for the homeless. One old lady named "Mercedes" had a very badly bleeding nose. One of the other women on the street said "Susanna could you please get her some help. Her nose has been bleeding for days." There is something about when a person calls you by name...the problem becomes very personal. I asked the policemen who drove us if we could do something. They ignored my request and said " Let's go!". When I got home, I did not feel like much of a Christian, so I returned later to the park. Her nose had stopped bleeding and she was settling into her cardboard box for the night. She smiled and said she was feeling better and the bleeding had stopped. I felt very relieved because I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do if it hadn't. I checked on her a couple of nights later and she said she was fine..

Each night we encounter sadness ..a young pregnant women passed out face down in the park..another pregnant women, hemorrhaging in the dump...the same woman, two weeks later, (her face swollen and bruised) pleading for help, because her husband had beaten her up. I tried to get the police involved, but they would have nothing to do with her. As she cried in my arms, pleading for help, I felt totally inadequate. There seems to be no limit to what is asked of us, and we must continually decide how involved we are willing to become. As you befriend the people you feed regularly, it becomes increasingly difficult to deal emotionally with their situations. I even to hesitate to ask the question " What would Christ do?" There are many times when I just draw the line, because it is all I am willing to do at this time.

The funds for the homeless shelter have also dried up. Richard was to lead a service team from Switzerland to assist in the construction of this facility in July. The architect who designed and supervised the construction of our cultural centre, at the Dreamer Center has also designed and is constructing the shelter. It is 1/3 complete, so he is not about to give up on it. He has put together a team to come up with some funding. Richard is on this team, so we hope and pray the funds will come forth. I believe they will. The architect, who is an exceptionally talented man, has donated all his time and services to the project..and I am very proud to say ..he is a Canadian.

Health wise we can report we are in very good shape. For a while, things were not going too well. I was pretty sick for a while with chest infections from the dust, but with the arrival of the rainy season, it has pretty well cleared up. An infestation of amoebas, and then a bacterial infection of the intestine followed these. Richard was also sick with Amoebas.

Speaking of the rainy season...it was uncanny the way they can predict its arrival on May the 15 th. It went from months of no rain, to a sprinkle on the 15th to serious flooding on the 16th. I left our centre to walk home. When I was half way there, it started to rain. By the time I arrived home there was two inches of water in the center of our house because our drains were plugged. The water in the streets was up over my ankles 15 minutes after it started to rain. I like the rainy season much better because there is less dust and everything becomes so green and lush. I personally have much more energy than in the hot dry season.

Richard and I have become very involved with a group of widows, in a small village, about 1 hour outside of Antigua. Most of the men in this area were killed in the massacres of the 80's, and these women have little or no means of supporting themselves. These women have formed a co-operative, called AFEDER (an association of women to promote rural development). About a year ago they asked us if we could buy them a loom so they could learn to do the traditional weaving, for which Guatemala is so famous...so with the funds from Canada we purchased their first loom. I also met with them and offered to set up a preschool program for them. Though they were very excited about the idea, I quickly realized they were planning on using this program as a daycare center, which would enable them to earn a living to support their families. As I thought about their specific needs, and determined they actually had no building to house such a program, I considered the idea of a system of "Private Home Daycare"

Very briefly the long-range plan looks something like this:

• 5 women in the community would make their homes available to care for children during the day.
• AFEDER would license and hire these home daycare providers
• there would be approximately five children cared for in each home (this could free up to 25 mothers to work in or outside the home)
• employment would also be provided for the 5 daycare providers
• a program supervisor would be hired to monitor the program, and provide ongoing ideas for activities, replenish supplies and insure simple procedures are being followed

This summer we are launching a pilot project with funds from Canada. Equipment and toys have been purchased to set up one home daycare center. Two women have chosen to share the job of daycare provider and one woman has offered her home. Next week these women will be coming to our preschool for a brief training program. We do not want this to be only daycare ..we hope to provide a number of activities and educational toys that will enhance the children's development and help prepare them for school. Canada will be paying the salaries of these women and funding the program for the first year.

The other component to this plan is to purchase a number of looms for the women. Miraculously, a woman from the States has made contact with us, who has written several books on weaving, has lived down here for a number of years and is willing to help us with this project. She was the missing link, because Richard and I know nothing about weaving. We were really getting in over our head. This woman has already given us some incredible ideas for marketing. If the pilot project shows promise, we will continue to look for help for these women. At least this gives them some hope. They are very excited about it.

Richard has also just initiated another plan to help the families in our project acquire high efficiency cook stoves, that require 66% less wood than average. The main advantage is that it will significantly reduce the high incidence of respiratory disease, caused by no venting in the houses to eliminate smoke. The target is to purchase 500 stoves, and he is presently trying to negotiate funding from the Rotary Club in St. Pauls Minnesota.

Several of the volunteers at the center have had unpleasant experiences in Antigua lately. One girl from Canada was robbed twice.. another man from Denmark was robbed by two men, with Machetes and hoods over their heads... a girl from the States, sharing a house with our volunteers, was assaulted and went home the next day.... a volunteer in one of our preschool classes was also grabbed, but her friend beat off the assailant with an umbrella...not to mention, the pistol fire from a VW bug across the path of our mini bus as we were driving to the airport to pick up a service team. There are many desperate people down here, and for some, violence has just become their way of life.

You can see there are many things to finish before we come home. Please keep these
projects in your prayers. If any of you wish to make a donation to specifically feeding the homeless, please indicate this when you send in your donation. In case you have forgotten the address
:
Sister Marjorie Fitzpatrick,
644B Bruham Ave.,
Pembroke, ON,
K8A 4H4

For your continued interest and support, we are truly thankful. You are all our partners in mission, and without you, none of these incredible things could be happening. Thank you from the homeless of Antigua, the forgotten women of Sacula, the families of San Felipe, the orphans of Patzun and the children of the Dreamer Center. We wish that each and every one of you had the chance to experience the satisfaction of personally seeing what you have done. It is our privilege to work on your behalf.

In Service,

Susan and Richard